Development of Quantum Mechanics

WavesAP Chemistry

ByDiane Paskowski

If light is a wave with particle properties, are electrons particles with wave properties?

C. J. Davisson and L. H. Germier at Bell labs proved that electrons produce diffraction patterns and verified deBroglies hypothesis

DeBroglie’s Question

What could they do next?

Bohr’s model did not work for atoms other than hydrogen

Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrodinger developed quantum mechanics independently.

Wave Mechanics/Quantum Mechanics

Schrodinger◦ Emphasized wave properties of the electrons◦ Wave function

Figure 7.10 The Hydrogen Electron Visualized as a Standing Wave Around the Nucleus

Orbital is not an orbit

Electron NOT moving around the nucleus

DO NOT KNOW how it is moving

Most Important Ideas

Probably Heisenberg

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle◦ There is a fundamental limitation to just how

precisely we can know both the position and momentum of a particle at a given time.

Wave function has no easily visualized physical meaning

Square of the function indicates the probability of finding an electron near a particular point in space

Probabilty distribution defines the orbital

What does it all mean?